As workers worry that AI could make their jobs obsolete, Google cofounder Sergey Brin is offering a different view.
Speaking during an unscripted fireside chat at Google DeepMind Build Day at AGI House, Brin pointed to games like Go and said that human achievement has continued to advance after computers surpassed people in those domains.
“And by the way, since AlphaGo, the game of Go has advanced a lot,” said Brin. “The players that played against it, Lee Sedol, became vastly better after, and Ke Jie after he played AlphaGo also. It has pushed the state of the art.”
Sedol was one of the world’s top Go players and a multiple-time international champion when he won one of five games against AlphaGo, powered by Google DeepMind, in March 2016. Jie was the world’s No. 1-ranked Go player when he faced AlphaGo in 2017 and lost all three games.
Go is a two-player board game that originated in China, usually played by placing black and white stones on a grid. The goal is to control more territory than the opponent and capture their stones.
“The fact that computers can do things well has actually not stopped humans getting better and better at them, getting more and more recognition and enjoying those things,” Brin said. “I think we’re going to find AI can do a whole lot of pretty surprising things, but I think they also help advance people in doing it.”
Brin’s comments also land amid a broader debate about whether AI will replace workers or augment them. A recent poll by Quinnipiac University found that 30% of Americans believe AI could make their jobs obsolete.
While some executives have pointed to AI as a factor in layoffs, many researchers and economists argue that the evidence for widespread AI-driven job losses remains limited. Instead, much of the discussion in Silicon Valley has shifted toward how AI changes the nature of work, allowing people to focus more on judgment, creativity, and decision-making while machines handle routine tasks.
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, Duolingo CEO Luis von Ahn, and former Google distinguished engineer Kelsey Hightower have all recently said that soft skills like empathy, communication, and relationship-building cannot be replaced by AI.
